Anonymous claim attacks on Japanese government

After a series of web attacks forced a number of Japan's government websites offline, a Twitter feed associated with the hacking organisation has admitted responsibility.

Sites for Japan's Finance Ministry, Supreme Court and political parties LDP and DPJ were initially unavailable following the attacks but have since been restored.

The attacks are reportedly a response to the country's new anti-piracy bill which punishes downloaders of copyrighted content with jail terms. The law states that users who willingly download copyrighted content illegally could face fines of up to two million yen, a prison sentence of up to two years, or both.

A statement from the Anonymous website claims that the bill will "result in scores of unnecessary prison sentences to numerous innocent citizens"

Data provided by the Recording Industry Association of Japan has highlighted that 4.36 billion files were illegally downloaded within the country in 2010 alone.

Piracy has been a hot issue recently with PCR reporting last week on the Indian government's decision to unblock The Pirate Bay and other file sharing websites. The UK has seen its own share of piracy controversy too as BT became the latest internet service provider to block access to the controversial site.

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